Iran has deployed "150,000 missiles" in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip purely for defensive purposes, former Iranian deputy foreign minister Hossein Sheikholeslam said last week.
Sheikholeslam, who has served as Iran's ambassador to Syria, said in an Iranian television interview aired on August 27 that Iran has "invested" in the "huge defensive and strategic endeavor" of deploying the vast missile arsenal, which he said can be launched at Israel at Iran's discretion, to deter an Israeli or US attack.
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Since the US has defined Israel's national security as part of its own, he said, this strategy is Iran's greatest deterrent against both countries, without which Israel would have certainly attacked Fordow, Bushehr, and Natanz "dozens of times."
Sheikholeslam went on to say that a ballistic missile launched from Iran would take eight minutes to reach Israel and would be detected by American and NATO radars in the region. In contrast, missiles launched from Lebanon would have begun their descent almost as soon as they were detected.
In addition, Sheikholeslam said that Iran has no intention of "driving Israel into the sea" or attacking it with nuclear weapons. Rather, he said that Iran's military capabilities were exclusively for purposes of deterrence and that Tehran simply wants the "Zionists" to understand that they have "violated the rights of the Palestinians" and should leave the region, which should be easy because they "have citizenship in several European countries anyway."
This article was originally published by MEMRI and was reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
